Heartbeat Detector (DVD)
APPROX. 141 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2007 - MPA RATING: NR
" A damned weird movie that doesn’t lend itself to easy categorization.
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The film is strikingly photographed by Josée Deshaies, and I found more memorable shots in "Heartbeat Detector" than in any other 2007 movie that comes to mind, including one of the best men´s room shots I´ve seen since "The Shining." It´s a world of impenetrable surfaces, impersonal modernist architecture, drab-suited drones, and slightly off-kilter close-ups that imbue many scenes with an unquantifiable queasy feeling.
Several films come to mind when describing "Heartbeat Detector." "Michael Clayton" is the most recent and obvious one, though that only gives you a sense of the first third or so the film. "Night and Fog" (1955) though nobody will mistake Klotz´s film for a masterpiece on the level of Resnais´ towering achievement. Orson Welles´ "The Trial" (1962) is another, if only for the "Heartbeat´s" distinctly creepy way of shooting office interiors.
"Heartbeat Detector" is not, however, a sum of these parts, but a unique and very, very strange movie. I admit that I don´t quite know what to make of it yet, having just seen it last week. It may be all sound and fury in the end, but it´s also quite haunting. The glacial pacing and relative lack of a payoff may disappoint some viewers, but all I know is that I´ve been thinking about it ever since I saw it, and I certainly can´t say the same thing about most movies.
Video
The film is presented in a 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer. This is an interlaced transfer which is disappointing but standard for New Yorker. The image looks a little too dark and isn´t quite as sharp as would be preferable.
Audio
The DVD is presented in Dolby 5.1 and 2.0. Optional English subtitles support the French audio.
Extras
Only a trailer.
Film Value
The French title of the film is "La question humaine" which, as you can probably guess, would translate as "The Human Question." Why was "Heartbeat Detector" (a term mentioned in the film) deemed a more marketable title? If so, it didn´t succeed. Does the original title sound too, I dunno, philosophical for North American audiences?
"Heartbeat Detector" is a damned weird movie that doesn´t lend itself to easy categorization. There´s more form than substance here, but since when is that a bad thing?
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